The announcement of the Nov.14 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Corker chairs, amounts to a significant escalation of what has so far been a war of merely words between the powerful Republican and his party’s standard-bearer.

Pope Francis is seeking to defuse rising nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula and to boost support for disarmament with a Vatican conference that will bring together 11 Nobel Peace Prize winners, United Nations and NATO officials, and representatives from a handful of countries with the bomb.

Kremlin says Trump’s call for cooperation on North Korea in line with Russia’s stance

Remarks by US President Donald Trump about the need for joint actions to tackle the North Korean problem are in line with the stance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the US leader’s statement concerning the need to help Russia solve this problem.

U.S. President Donald Trump should use his visit to Beijing to underscore that North Korea’s denuclearization is in both countries‘ interests, a Republican senator said Wednesday. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) made the call hours before Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were to meet over North Korea’s nuclear weapons threats and other issues.

Newly declassified documents show that a quarter-century ago as worries were emerging over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told allies the U.S. should not consider military action as it could jeopardize diplomatic efforts.

In South Korea, President Trump abruptly shifted position on negotiations with North Korea, saying he wanted to “make a deal” with the Kim Jong Un regime. If he means it, there may be an opening, because his State Department has been working on a new initiative to break the diplomatic stalemate with Pyongyang, starting with a proposed 60-day freeze in nuclear and missile tests.